Concept
Sisyphus
Overview
In Greek mythology, Sisyphus or Sisyphos ( ; Ancient Greek: Σίσυφος, romanized: Sísyphos) is the founder and king of Ephyra (now known as Corinth). He reveals Zeus's abduction of Aegina to the river god Asopus, thereby incurring Zeus's wrath. His subsequent cheating of death earns him eternal punishment in the underworld, once he dies of old age. The gods condemned him to push an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll back down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity. Through the classical influence on contemporary culture, tasks that are laborious, futile, and never-ending are therefore often described as Sisyphean ().
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
Possible passages
Found by search and not yet checked by a person; they may only mention the idea in passing.
As he was going down towards the sea-coast to take measures against Greece, a Persian whose name was Epixyes, governor of the upper Phrygia, laid wait to kill him, having for that purpose provided a long time before a number of Pisidians, who were to set upon him when he should stop to rest at a city that is called Lion's-head. But Themistocles, sleeping in the middle of the day, saw the Mother of the gods appear to…
Plutarch, Plutarch
States what Sisyphus is; the author is tied to Sisyphus in the knowledge graph.
The spirit said that by this opening Dionysus[67:2] went up to the gods, and afterward led Semele up by the same way, and that the place is called Lethe.[68:1] He did not suffer Thespesius to remain there, though he wanted to stay, but took him away by force, teaching him at the same time, and telling him how the mind is melted and soaked by sensual pleasure, while the unreasoning and body-like part of the soul…
Plutarch, Plutarch on the Delay of the Divine Justice
States what Sisyphus is; the author is tied to Sisyphus in the knowledge graph.
Ixion is for ever fastened to his wheel; Sisyphus must to all eternity roll his stone without ever being able to reach the apex of his mountain; the vulture must perpetually prey on the liver of the unfortunate Prometheus: those who dare to think for themselves--those who have refused to listen to their enthusiastic guides--those who have not reverenced the oracles--those who have had the audacity to consult their…
Paul Henri Thiry Holbach, The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 1
Opens on Sisyphus; names Sisyphus.
Philosophers who discussed Sisyphus
Related ideas
- Franz Kafka
- Homer
- Ancient Corinth
- Eternity
- Odyssey
- Plato
- Absurdism
- Greek mythology
- Plutarch
- Sophocles
- De rerum natura
- Richard Clyde Taylor
- Zeus
- Lucretius
- Ovid
- The Myth of Sisyphus
- Epicureanism
- Georges Dumézil
- Delphi
- Apology (Plato)
- Euripides
- Albert Camus
- Classicism
- Bellerophon
Place in the tradition
Part of Absurdism.